10 thoughts on “Contact”

Dear Ritchie: I stumbled over your website recently & I’ve enjoyed a lot of it. I did not know that you were such a baseball fan. Congrats on Giants winning the Series, even though I was pulling for the Royals, being the AL/Red Sox fan that I am. Any new books/projects in the pipeline? Hope all’s well & hopefully talk to you soon, Joe

Hello, Mr. Unterberger. I am not able to e=mail you, but I am using your first book for a commentarty on Rock lyrics, if the guys who own the lyrics will allow it. I have a project on
(Do Not Post?)
Kickstarter, and you can find my first chapter, with “American Pie” at my website/On Music. Sometimes people get the blank website. I’ll be visiting more, and looking for your books. I got to buy the last one cause I spilled coffee on the library copy, a blessing, but soon I’ll be richer than you!

Hi Richie –
Thank you for including The Seeds: Pushin’ Too Hard in your top 10 list! I’m delighted you enjoyed it.
We should trade some music biz stories.
Wanna trade some GNP CDs for your books?
I’d like to check out your work. It looks promising!
Sincerely,
Neil Norman

I stumbled on your page on original versions of Francoise Hardy’s covers of other people’s songs. Most interesting, especially for a mega fan of her works like me. I read your notes on Alle nächte about the uncertainty of establishing a possible source for her version. On a whim I tried a quick search on you-tube and came up with Tommy Kent’s version of 1960, which precedes her with quite a few years but seems a very possible source as the arrangements are very similar, with female choire et al. See for yourself –http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlNH4u6dFY4

Your page on miss Hardy’s covers really is a treasure trove of information. (Loved the stuff on Simon Napier-Bell and messieurs Brown and Jones.) However when it came to her source of It hurts to say goodbye your she has said herself in numerous interviews that she heard it at an editor as an instrumental. Apparently this person had booked a meeting with her to present her with, what he considered, suitable songs for her. And of all the songs he played her she liked none, with the possible exception of an instrumental that she took almost only so that the whole session shouldn’t have been a total waste of time. Listening to it again at home, she found that it started to grow on her. Then her secretary suggested that they should ask Serge Gainsbourg to write lyrics for it. Which, to Françoise’s surprise he agreed to do. As to the identity of the source version, a quick search revealed that both writers put out their own versions of the song – Jack Gold in 1969 as the Jack Gold Orchestera and Choir: It hurts to say goodbye on Columbia (check) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogU16LtfHXE . However this version features a choir singing the lyrics so it can’t be the source version. (And it’s too late, only appearing after her version.) But Arnold Goland put out a version prior to her (in 1967 it seems) – as the flipside of his single The honeypot on United Artists and it seems a possible contender. (check) artwork – http://www.cdandlp.com/en/arnold-goland-hardy-gainsbourg/the-honey-pot-it-hurts-to-say-goodbye/7inch-sp/r116396368/
I’ve resarched youtube for his version and ended up with this clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ5RfHTsfWU
(and) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU-zRE–Gvk
But then some fan discussion claims that this single was cancelled – https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/spectropop/conversations/topics/47367
So to conclude, can’t claim to have found you the source version, but can inform you that she has said herself that she discovered it as an instrumental.
Encore thanks for a terrific page,
Magnus Astrom

Thanks for sending in all this information. I’ve used it to update my entry in my post for “It Hurts to Say Goodbye,” and also have noted in a couple places that Gainsbourg wrote the lyrics for “Comment te Dire Adieu.”

Thank you so much for visiting the Mills College Art Museum and your thoughtful response to Root Connection: 20 Years of The Patti Smith. We are so happy to be able to share such an incredible archive of this pioneering rockers work with the Bay Area audience. It has also been an opportunity to introduce new audiences to MCAM, since Smith is held in such wide affection.

We were thrilled to receive 350+ visitors on opening night and have had a steady daily audience since. Publications like yours definitely help us–a small museum with limited resources–get the word out about our exhibitions and programs.

Just read your article about the origins of the High Numbers / Who song Zoot Suit. As you rightly point out the song was appropriated from ‘Misery’ by The Dynamics and not the Showman’s ‘Country Fool’ as is often quoted. However myself and Andy Neill did point this out in our 2002 book ‘Anyway Anyhow Anywhere – The complete chronicle of The Who 1958 – 1978′, pre-dating your article by some 13 years Loved your work on the Lifehouse book. Matt

Yes, as Matt and I clarified after I received his comment, the 2005 revised edition of his and Andy Neill’s excellent book “Anyway Anyhow Anywhere” correctly cites the Dynamics’ “Misery” as the source of the tune for “Zoot Suit.” I’ve added this info to my post about “Zoot Suit.”